"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

There was an error in this gadget

Sunday, 2 June 2013

A perfectly-executed race at Farum Lake

Sounds pretty cocky, doesn't it? Perfectly-executed. But that is what kept going through my head as I ran. Beautiful trails, up and down winding through the forest, the kilometers just kept ticking away and I didn't slow down.

You learn so much about your body and your mind by racing and that is one of the reasons I race so often. I'm glad that I have found that as long as I stick to shorter races on trails, I don't get injured (well, not yet).

I woke up feeling completely crappy. I had been up multiple times in the middle of the night with stomach issues. I hate it when I am kept awake by myself and not by my little charges. I thought about dropping the race. But I had no other way to get babysitting for a tempo run, so we loaded up the car to Farum. An hour's drive with a busy-bodied, busy-minded troll is not easy.

Here I am waiting very patiently for the very nice babysitter at Farum Sø Løb to allow me to drop off Mattias 27 minutes before the start (not that I was keeping track). What a great service to offer! Thank you!

I warmed up and felt like a sack of warm potatoes. Have you ever felt like that? It is not a good feeling before a race. I could not get up any speed without my stomach hurting. Should I just leave? But I was completely clad in in matching Salomon clothing and looked like someone who had better rock this race. Someone who would never have an excuse or a bad day.

I guess there were 311 runners for the 14.38k. Looking at past results, I would need to run in under an hour to win for the females. That seemed pretty wild. I didn't really know what the trails were like, but it says on the website something about "very hilly and shifty". Under an hour seemed kind of unrealistic, bur Dorte Dahl wasn't there, so who knew what would be required to win. And winning wasn't the nr. 1 goal.

At 10:07, in the middle of Farum Stadium, we were off- just me and the men. I didn't see any other women the rest of the race. I ran most of the race with two guys. Not drafting off them, just with them and around them. The description of "very hilly" was good, though nothing seemed "shifty" as the trails were very nice and there was nothing technical. In other words, the kind of race I do best at.

Splits-

5k 20:01

10k; 40:22

14.38 59:15 (there are two really big uphills to finish of the race, so this is when it started to hurt)

(4:07 min/km; 6:37 min/mile)

It felt magical. I never got tired, never stopped having fun. Seriously. I smiled and smiled and swiped a drink at both aid stations and still ran probably the best quality race of my life to date. So, my pre-race blahs meant nothing during the race. Very interesting. And the two interval sessions over the past week had not sat in my legs. I am really starting to think my coach knows what he is doing.

And I won. 1/109 women. And I was 10th overall. I know this is going to sound petty now, but I sprinted over the finish line for 10th with a guy and I just barely beat him, but they have him registered as coming in before me. And that is all I'll say about that. (edit: just figured out that there were two mats and I stopped after the first one and walked and was registered as finishing two seconds later - real time 59:13!).

As I crossed the finish line I hear "Tracy Høeg fra Salomon og HGATM første kvinde!" and that was all it took for me to raise my arms in joy and get tears in my eyes.

And then Mattias was nowhere to be found! I guess I arrived too quickly! So I went to the awards

3rd (Ulla), 1st and 2nd (Sofie) place ladies.

The guy who graciously took these photos had apparently not gotten the impression he should take a picture when we were actually given our awards and waved to the other cameras. Results here, by the way.

So I know I'm supposed to be modeling the Salomon clothing, so it is wee bit unfortunate I look so bloated - I told you my stomach had been bothering me! I love Mr. Number 68. Would you like to dance?

I won a 500 kr. gift card from SSports which I gave Natti to use on the running clothing of her choice at the online store. She was thrilled. If our family keeps winning clothing and gear at races, we'll have to find a group of runners in the 3rd world (I keep thinking about the logistics of something like that - anyone know of an organization?)

Olga - you are at least right about the shirt. I had received some things in Medium in my first batch and that was one of them. They shorts were size small and they felt nice a snug- even good compression of the legs. In my next batch, everything is size small.

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

...

My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.